US President George W. Bush said on Friday that ending violence in Darfur will probably require double the number of peacekeepers there now, led by the UN with strong NATO support.
"We need more troops," Bush stressed saying that the 7,000-strong African Union [AU] deployment there "was noble, but it didn't achieve the objective."
"I'm in the process now of working with a variety of folks to encourage there to be more troops, probably under the United Nations," he said days after meeting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"But it's going to require a NATO stewardship, planning, facilitating, organizing, probably double the number of peacekeepers that are there now, in order to start bringing some sense of security," Bush said.
The US president's comments, his most detailed to date about how to respond to the worsening situation in Darfur, came hours after he spoke by telephone with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
The president telephoned de Hoop Scheffer "to share his concerns about the deteriorating situation in Darfur," said White House spokesman Trent Duffy, adding that the two discussed "what additional actions NATO might take in the future."
The AU force, which was deployed in 2004, has been suffering from poor funding and inadequate resources to contain the escalating bloodshed in Sudan's troubled western region.
The UN Security Council earlier this month approved contingency planning for UN peacekeepers to take over from the AU force in Darfur.
Despite strong pressure from Western governments, Khartoum has so far remained implacably hostile to the deployment of UN troops there.
The war in Darfur broke out in February 2003, when black ethnic groups launched a rebellion against Khartoum that was brutally repressed by the Arab Islamist regime of the Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir.
The combined effect of the war and one of the world's worst humanitarian crises has left up to 300,000 people dead and an estimated 2.4 million displaced.
"There has to be a consequence for people abusing their fellow citizens," Bush said.
"Our country was the first country to call what was taking place a genocide, which matters -- words matter," he said.
Looking to repair a broader north-south peace agreement, Bush said that Sudan's rebel groups "are not united in their objectives. And so politically, or diplomatically, we have to work to make sure there's one voice."
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated the charge that "genocide" was taking place in Darfur, but moves to bolster security with a UN force were held up pending a request from the AU.
"On Darfur, our policy is unchanged. It is our view that genocide was committed and in fact continues in Darfur," Rice said in testimony before the House International Relations Committee.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in